Shamba Maisha is a groundbreaking study addressing food insecurity and health in HIV-affected households. A team of researchers, physicians, engineers, bankers, farmers, statisticians, nutritionists, economics and social scientists have come together to develop and test new approaches to improve health and empower families affect by HIV in rural Kenya.

Since 2016, Shamba Maisha has been testing the effectiveness of their collaborative intervention. This August, they’re ready to build on that to recruit up to 240 adolescent girls to assess the preliminary impact of the intervention at the household level on adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health.

The researchers predict that improvements in food security and wealth will contribute to reduced STIs, HIV, and unintended pregnancies among adolescent girls. They will collect demographic, behavioral, clinical, and biological data from adolescent girls and their caregivers to test their hypothesis. To our knowledge, this study is the first to evaluate whether an agricultural and finance intervention at the household-level will impact adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health. Data will be collected over an 18-month period across 16 communities in Kisumu, Homa Bay, and Migori counties in Western Kenya.